From October 2007 until December 2011, I worked for Covidien in the Boston area. My first apartment was in Quincy, but after one year, I moved to Wellesley. As usual, I commuted back to Philadelphia every weekend. Occasionally, Becky would come back to Boston for the weekend.
On Sunday in 2008, Becky had looked at the newspaper and said, let’s see some open houses in Wellesley. I was not interested in buying here, but it was a nice day, and Becky liked to see homes.
Every house we saw the same people. One of the men said to the realtor, “I was following the other couple with the Lexus.”
As we left, I noticed that the man following us had a Pennsylvania tag on the vehicle. I asked him if he was from Pennsylvania. He said, “yes, from Philadelphia.” Becky and I said that we were both from Philadelphia.
Becky and I introduced ourselves, and he said his name was Patrick Chamber. He told me that he was the basketball coach at Boston University and that he had been an assistant coach at Villanova. My two brothers went to Villanova, and I was a huge fan. My high school friend, Joe Rodgers, played at Villanova. Patrick knew who he was. I told him that I was a soccer player and did not want to play at Villanova, I went to Penn State. He gave me his business card and told me to come to see a game sometime. Of course, I never did.
In June 2011, I heard that Patrick Chambers had gotten the head coach at Penn State.
In December 2011, I left Covidien and went back to Philadelphia.
In fall 2011, we went to a field hockey game. I told the story about Patrick to my friend Char Morett, who is the women’s field hockey coach. Char said that she and Patrick became good friends since they had grown up in the Philadelphia area. She said that Patrick would probably stop by the game and make sure Ed said hello.
When I saw Patrick, I told him about my story in Wellesley with my wife. He remembered me immediately.
In June 2020, I had a stroke and had been working with Aphasia. I knew that Becky had told Char about me, and she had called me several times to see how I was. Char told me that at recent coaches meeting about Ed’s stroke. Patrick asked her if it would be okay to call Ed. He was very supportive and told me to call him if I needed any help.
My friends tell me that I am hardworking and determined on my Aphasia. Their friends made me inspiring me to keep positive working on getting ahead. Thank you!
